Reflections on The Rift

[Damworth Incorporated]

What a great time and a great group! For any who may have missed it, 13 of us went into the Rift last night, some old hands, some new, in levels ranging from 50 to 65, and in the space of just over 4 hours, we downed 6 bosses and gave the 'Rog a run for his money. Now, I know there are kins out there who would do it with 6 toons at level 20 in 1.5 hours at 2AM on a Wednesday, but as far as I can tell...

It's good to be in S&H, "the casual kin that raids."

Quick notes, in the Balrog room, when yer hope gets wiped, run to the back of the room and then back up the platform to restore it. Not saying this because I remembered, but because, at the time, I forgot .

Tempting as it is to have that blackberry tart recipe scroll NOW, RIGHT NOW, during a raid, please wait until we have finished not dying in the middle of combat to loot.

That's all I've got in the way of advice, et ceterea, but I think we need to post AFTER raids to help us all learn from them and function better as a team. Anyone else notice any other things we could tweak? Post it.

Can't believe I kept the official role of leader through the whole raid . It was good to have Gil and Gammi talk us through the complicated stuff though!

(And hey, I didn't even screw up the loot distribution. Well--once...)

[-Dazy-]

The only other problem I saw was that mezzes were broken a lot. Make sure you understand which of your attacks are AoE. If we control the mezzes we control the fight.

[Gilderbrand]

All things considered I thought the run went very well. (and Saturday too)

I think the thing that I would like to add is preparation - being ready, both your toon and your gaming area are important. We saw this some on Friday and again on Saturday - if you are ready to go, we can see more content and spend less time waiting for AFK's

On Friday the level range made for some interesting times with the tanks being low and some of the DPS being 11 levels higher. Overall I am very pleased to be raiding again once or twice a week. It's great fun and so much better than solo leveling a toon

[-Dazy-]

Gilderbrand wrote:

We saw this some on Friday and again on Saturday - if you are ready to go, we can see more content and spend less time waiting for AFK's...

I know you weren't directing this at us Gil but Linn and I are guilty of at least some AFK time. We make sure both dogs are played out and napping before we start the raid. That being said puppies have very little control over their bladders before they are 4 months old and we try to make sure we only take them out between boss fights.

Again I know you weren't directing that comment at us but I did want to apologize for the delays and recognize and appreciate the leeway and patience you guys have given us. S&H rocks!

[Gilderbrand]

-Dazy- wrote:

I know you weren't directing this at us Gil but Linn and I are guilty of at least some AFK time.

You are quite correct Dazy. Puppies are a hand full and at the stage yours is at, there is no help for it. When they need attention you have to give it.

What I was referring to is more of the prep stuff that should be done prior to a raid. I know that we are "raid lite" and some things can't be avoided, but generally when I raid I am prepared well ahead. You will notice that when I have signed up to raid I am ready to go at least 10 min ahead, usually more. When I post a raid, I am at the horn to invite and summon well before raid time.

I am not trying to rant or point fingers, just suggest that the more prepared we are, the more content we can see - that extra time could be another run at the boss, and maybe, just maybe, putting him at our feet for a "we finally did it" screen shot.

[-Dazy-]

Well said Gil. And I agree. Just wanted you guys to know how much we appreciate your patience while Pippin gets his bladder under control. l

[Damworth Incorporated]

Our common factor is the whole bladder thing. I make no apologies for this .

[-Dazy-]

Damworth Incorporated wrote:

Our common factor is the whole bladder thing. I make no apologies for this .

bwahahahaha

[-Dazy-]

I will say that it is important to come prepared with food, pots, scrolls and tokens. In yesterday's raid I burned through 12 sets of scrolls which is between 2 and 3g worth of Rune-carved tablets alone. Linneax makes tokens and as you know those require Khazad Copper which is hard to come by and very expensive.

Be courteous to your fellow raiders and come prepared. If you don't craft, check the AH for tokens and scrolls. They are usually cheaper if you pick them up mid-week rather than waiting for the weekend when demand is high.

As for pots (as well as traveling rations) I top mine off every time I go to my neighborhood to repair or w/e. It's rare that I ever show up to a raid without at least 30 of each pot.

And finally, if you come across scholar mats or foot mats etc. instead of vendoring them, why not donate them to your local scholar, cook, or jeweler?

If everyone comes prepared, we are that much closer to successfully completing the raid.

[Shortline/Dod]

I agree with a lot stated above...and Dazy & Lin, I understand about the puppy :P

Just to help further reinforce what has been said, I love running raids, but it gets frustrating when after every 2 pulls we have to go afk for a few minutes while someone goes to the bathroom, etc (now I know sometimes its unavoidable as stated above, but for personal breaks, when we break, EVERYONE who thinks they might need to in the next hour should go ahead and use that time). I'm fairly confident we wasted at least 45min - 1 hour standing around waiting (and yes, I know some of it is unavoidable)....that's a lot more time we could have put into defeating the boss :P

Also, in regards to expendable items (scrolls, tokens, pots, etc)....The other thing I noticed was that the same people seemed to be popping scrolls or tokens.... While many times its because someone spoke up first, I think often more than half our raid didn't have anything to read/pop. As Dazy said...that stuff can be expensive to make and when the same person is doing it over and over again because everyone else is slacking...well its a bit frustrating. Something we use to do on our rift runs was have somebody (usually Troub, but it could be anyone), keep track of who had popped what and then made sure to rotate it as we came up on boss fights. I'd be willing to do this if we want because i think its only fair to the entire group to share the load. If you don't have a toon that can make it...ask someone in the kin or check the website for who has supreme mastery. I'm more than happy to make stuff for people if they provide me with the mats or some money to help compensate for the cost of the mats (because it can get expensive). But people just need to ask!

So please, PLEASE, make sure you are ready before running the raid. It'll go smoother and we'll all have more fun

/end_rant

--Dod

[Damworth Incorporated]

Dod, go ahead and pick up where Troub left off, calling out who's due to pop or read whatever. Now, Troub usually kept that to just tokens, but in terms of raid preparedness, I'm always set with AT LEAST three of both scroll types and 5 tokens. And I spent an hour and a half this morning farming crafting mats to replenish those scrolls now that I've run short--and I don't mind doing it, but if everyone did a little, no one would have to do a lot.

Again, on the subject of bathroom breaks, this is one player who ain't about to throw stones at glass houses ...

[Gilderbrand]

If you think about it, some of the usage is because of the AFK's. It seems like we need to refresh everything because they are running out after a break.

One thing to note is that we should not need every aid - scrolls, tokens, etc. at all times - tokens are needed for bosses or if we have dread and can't remove it. Keep in mind that it may be better to burn Destiny points to remove dread if the mini's are all on cooldown. Scrolls also are needed for bosses and maybe some of the later trash mob pulls. But we are getting good enough that we should not need them for every pull.

Food and pots are pretty much required whenever, so make sure you have plenty - this just really helps the healers at all times.

As for rotating who pops, we can go back to that to take the burden off any one individual.

[-Dazy-]

Scrolls last for 40 minutes so they should last through trash and a boss. It's nice to have the extra damage and resistances when a trash mob pull goes awry. "Ooops we pulled both groups!"